


It's Nice (to Have a Friend)

by Miyuki_scourgeofthefirenation



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Azula - Freeform, Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Child Abuse, Childhood Friends, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Katara - Freeform, Light Angst, M/M, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai - Freeform, POV Sokka (Avatar), POV Zuko (Avatar), suki - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24900565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miyuki_scourgeofthefirenation/pseuds/Miyuki_scourgeofthefirenation
Summary: A few moments through the lives of Sokka and Zuko from childhood to adulthood.
Relationships: Iroh & Sokka (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 40
Kudos: 351





	It's Nice (to Have a Friend)

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the incredibly sweet Taylor Swift song It’s Nice to Have a Friend. All sections in italics come from the song and are the work and property of Taylor Swift.
> 
> I don’t even know where this came from. I was just sitting there, minding my business, listening to this song when the idea for this popped into my head. And, as we have established, I have no chill regarding story ideas that decide to pop into my head like that. And now it is written.
> 
> I love Taylor Swift and I will make exactly zero apologies for that.

**8 Years Old**

_School bell rings, walk me home_

_Sidewalk chalk covered in snow_

_Lost my gloves, you give me one_

_"Wanna hang out?" Yeah, sounds like fun_

_Video games, you pass me a note_

_Sleeping in tents_

_~_

_It's nice to have a friend_

_~_

The new kid had lost his gloves, or that’s what Sokka thinks has happened based on the low murmuring of the teacher as she attempts to comfort the boy. She goes back into the classroom to try and find them again and the boy stands forlornly near the entrance to the school. Sokka wanders closer to him.

He looks up with a sniffle, trying to quickly wipe away the tears in his eyes. “What do you want?” he asks in a small voice.

Sokka quirks his head to the side. “You lost your gloves?”

“Yeah,” the other boy mutters.

“I know it’s cold, but it’s not that cold. I’m sure you’ll be okay with no gloves.” Sokka supplies in an attempt to be helpful. He doesn’t like the boy being so upset.

“The cold doesn’t matter!” the other boy snaps angrily before turning away.

Sokka is surprised by the reaction. “What’s the matter then?” he asks, suddenly unsure.

The other boy looks around at him again before hanging his head. “My- my father will be mad.” he says quietly. At that point the teacher walks out of the classroom again.

“I’m sorry Zuko. I still can’t seem to find them. Maybe they’ll turn up tomorrow,” she says with a reassuring smile.

The new boy, Zuko, doesn’t look reassured by this. “Yeah,” he mutters, “maybe.” The teacher walks away again, leaving the two boys standing near the entrance. He takes a deep sigh and looks forlornly out the window. “I’m gonna start walking home.” 

Sokka feels a strange rush of affection towards him, despite his earlier snappishness. “Which direction are you going?” he asks before he can second guess himself.

Zuko looks over at him surprised. “Uh, towards Cedar Boulevard.”

“Cool! That’s on my way home. Mind if I walk with you?”

“No, no that would be okay,” Zuko says. The two boys head out into the snowy landscape to walk home. As they walk they get to know each other better. They quickly discover a shared love of video games and Star Wars. 

Once they get closer to where Zuko must live Sokka notices the other boy is becoming quieter again, more fearful. He tentatively puts a gloved hand on his shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay,” he says, trying to be helpful.

Zuko just looks more nervous at that. He looks down at where Sokka’s hand is resting on his shoulder and makes a noise somewhere between a laugh and a small sob. “That’s funny. You actually have the same pair of gloves that I do. Did.” He swallows and looks down.

Wordlessly Sokka removes his hand from Zuko’s shoulder and takes off his gloves. He thrusts them into Zuko’s hands, startling him.

“Wha-” Zuko looks up at him questioningly. Sokka smiles and starts walking away in the direction of his own home. “I can’t-”

Sokka turns around to face him, but continues walking backwards. “They’re yours now, no give backs!”

“Sokka!” Zuko calls after the retreating figure.

“Nope! See you tomorrow!” Sokka rounds a corner and is gone. Zuko looks down at the gloves in his hands, knowing full well what Sokka just saved him from.

“See you tomorrow.”

**15 Years Old**

_Light pink sky up on the roof_

_Sun sinks down, no curfew_

_20 questions, we tell the truth_

_You've been stressed out lately, yeah, me too_

_Something gave you the nerve_

_To touch my hand_

_~_

_It's nice to have a friend_

_~_

Sokka is on his way to Uncle Iroh’s house. Zuko wasn’t at school today and he’s worried, it’s not like Zuko to be absent. Being absent has always been more Sokka’s thing. He doesn’t know for sure if Zuko will be at Iroh’s, but he hopes so. He always hates when he has to go to Zuko’s house and deal with his father and sister. 

“Ah, Sokka,” Iroh says as he opens the door. “I was wondering when you would show up. Zuko’s been here for almost 24 hours now after all, and that’s basically a lifetime for you two to go without seeing each other!”

“You know me too well Iroh,” Sokka smiles at the man. “So, Zuko is here then?” He then takes in the other information Iroh had shared. “Wait, why has he been here all night?”

Iroh looks down and sighs sadly. “Things at home have… gotten significantly worse.”

Instantly Sokka’s face darkens. “Worse? I didn’t think things there could get much _worse_ ,” he spits out, his familiar anger at Zuko’s father Ozai bubbling up.

Iroh reaches out and pats him on the shoulder. “These are things that I think Zuko should share. More than ever he needs a friend right now. He’s up on the roof.”

“Thank you,” Sokka says and steps away to round the side of the house. Several years ago he and Zuko had found a way to climb up onto the roof from the garden area at the back of the house. Despite Iroh’s lectures about them falling off the roof they kept going up and eventually the older man accepted that they knew how to stay safe up there.

Sokka dumps his backpack on a deck chair and starts climbing up. Sure enough Zuko is sitting on the roof, staring away from him at the beautiful sunset happening.

Carefully walking over to him, Sokka calls out, “Hey man! Missed you in class today. Had to deal with Suki stealing my fries with nobody there to warn me. She’s sneaky y’know?” He sits down to the right of Zuko. Instantly he knows something is deeply, deeply wrong. Sokka has a finely tuned ‘best friend intuition’ as he calls it. Zuko calls it ‘not being a completely self-centered moron’ but that’s neither here nor there as far as Sokka is concerned. Normally Zuko always looks at Sokka after there’s an incident, but now he’s avoiding him, keeping his face turned away. 

“What happened?” Sokka asks softly after a minute.

“Nothing,” Zuko snaps, words muffled into his shirt. “Nothing happened! I just didn’t feel like going to school today, alright?”

This reaction also sounds alarm bells in Sokka’s head. Zuko has always told him what happens with his father since they were eleven years old. He once told Sokka that he felt like he was the only person who wouldn’t judge him for what his father did, wouldn’t think he was weak. Sokka has always taken that trust very seriously.

“Okay,” Sokka says slowly. “Normally I would let you have your space, talk about this in your own time, but Iroh said it was really bad this time. Plus he said you stayed here overnight. You never stay here overnight man.”

Zuko continues looking away. Sokka gives a sigh, and turns to stare at the sunset. They sit like that for quite a while in silence.

“How about this,” Sokka begins, abruptly disrupting the silence, “we play a game. Get your mind off things.”

“What game?” Zuko grunts out.

“Our old classic 20 questions of course!” They hadn’t played 20 questions for years now, but they used to play it all the time when they were getting to know each other.

“No offense man, but we’ve been best friends for seven years now, I doubt there’s anything we could come up with that we won’t know the answer to.” Zuko makes a good point, but Sokka is determined.

“That’s the whole fun of it! Try to stump each other and all that!” Zuko groans but Sokka continues, “Come on, come on, it’ll be fun.”

“Alright, alright, you have worn me down,” Zuko concedes. “Who starts?”

“I’ll ask you the questions first,” Sokka declares. “Is it a fruit?” Just like that they start playing the game. Zuko was right, they know each other too well for this, and Sokka guesses what it is within ten questions. (“The sunset? You were seriously thinking about the sunset?”)

“Well,” Zuko clears his throat, “you won that round, but now it’s my turn to ask you the questions.”

“Not so fast,” Sokka says, and Zuko pauses, almost turning to look at him but refraining at the last moment. “I have one more question to ask.”

“But you already got it right…” Zuko trails off. 

Sokka’s expression instantly turns serious, “What happened Zuko?”

Zuko swallows. He doesn’t seem to have words to describe what happened, so instead he finally turns so Sokka can see his face for the first time since he got there. The left side of his face now has a large, red scar stretching across it.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Sokka sucks in a breath.

Zuko laughs humorlessly and flops back against the roof. “Oh, if I had a dollar for every time you said that.”

“I’m serious this time,” Sokka snarls. “I’m actually gonna kill him for doing this to you. Like, you better get used to visiting me in jail serious.”

“Since you’re still a teenager I think you’d go to juvie not big boy jail.”

“Zuko.”

Zuko takes a deep breath and sits back up. “He was going after Azula for once. He never goes after her, but apparently she had gotten a bad grade on a paper or something. He just started screaming, in that way he normally reserves only for me. And she-” Zuko started to get choked up. “She was beginning to cry but trying not to in front of him, you know he doesn’t react well to crying. He was moving towards her and I thought- I thought he was gonna hurt her so I-” Zuko was struggling to finish his sentences, and Sokka reaches across him and hugs him. 

After a moment he disentangles himself from Sokka and continues, “I grabbed at his arm to get him to stop and he just threw me across the room. He apparently had a cup of coffee sitting on his desk and-” Zuko miserably gestures to his face.

“Hey,” Sokka says, “look at me.” Zuko complies, golden brown eyes locking onto the blue. “Your father is an asshole who deserves to rot forever for what he’s done. This and everything else. You are a good person, you don’t deserve this.” Zuko looks like he doesn’t believe him. “I’m serious, you are a wonderful friend, loving nephew, and caring brother clearly considering what you did to stop him attacking Azula.” Sokka takes a shaky breath, knowing there’s nothing he can truly say to make this better right now. He reaches out and takes Zuko’s hand in his. Staring down at their entwined hands he says, “You’re gonna be okay. Not today, not tomorrow, and maybe not for quite a while, but you _will. be. okay_. And I’m gonna be there every step of the way to make sure.”

Zuko is still staring at their clasped hands, but then he looks up at Sokka and nods. They stay like that up on the roof until Iroh calls them down for dinner.

**27 Years Old**

_Church bells ring, carry me home_

_Rice on the ground looks like snow_

_Call my bluff, call you "Babe"_

_Have my back, yeah, every day_

_Feels like home, stay in bed_

_The whole weekend_

_~_

_It's nice to have a friend_

_~_

Sokka happily puts the finishing touches on the wrapping of the present. Sure, it might not be the neatest job ever done, lord knows Katara would have made it much prettier, but it was important he do it himself. Zuko will be home soon and Sokka can’t wait to surprise him. He carefully sets the present on their dresser and goes into the kitchen to begin making dinner.

Zuko arrives home not long after Sokka puts the lasagna in the oven to cook. Sokka has since sat down in the dining room to answer some emails on his computer. He grins as Zuko walks into the room, and stands up to greet him with a kiss.

“I have something for you babe,” Sokka pulls away from Zuko with a smile.

Zuko raises his eyebrows. “What’s the occasion?”

“Loving my husband is the occasion, and I think that’s more than enough of a reason. Now stay right there.” Sokka rushes off into the bedroom to retrieve the present. Arriving back in the dining room he dramatically hands it over to Zuko.

Zuko reaches out and takes the present. “You wrap this yourself?”

“Yep!” Sokka chirps.

“I can tell,” Zuko laughs.

“Hey, don’t be a jerk!” Sokka exclaims, playfully throwing a paper napkin that was sitting on the table at him.

“Sorry, sorry,” Zuko laughs again. He carefully opens the present, and is speechless for a moment after he sees what it is. “Oh wow, Sokka…” 

Nestled inside the box is a framed picture of the two of them on their wedding day. Except Zuko’s never seen this picture before. In it Zuko is leaning against a tree and Sokka is reaching out towards him, grabbing his hand. Their eyes are locked on each other and faces split into smiles of such pure happiness. It’s clearly a candid moment taken from the reception of their wedding.

“How..?” Zuko asks, his voice coming out a little rough from the emotion he feels looking at the picture.

“The wedding photographer emailed me. She found another picture that had gotten lost in the initial shuffle that she thought we might like. Sent it to me over email. I got it printed out and framed. I thought you might like to have it for your office.” 

“This is wonderful,” Zuko says reverently. “I love it, and I love you.” He carefully sets the box and precious photograph down on the table and pulls Sokka closer. 

He leans in and presses his lips to Sokka’s. The kiss is sweet, and long, and speaks to everything they are to each other. It speaks to their beginnings, Sokka offering up his gloves to some kid he didn’t know, not even aware of what he was saving that kid from. All the years of video games and Star Wars movies. All the times Sokka saw him cry, all the times he let Sokka see him cry because he knew Sokka would never judge him for it. 

It speaks to their challenges. The aftermath of leaving home and going to live with Iroh. How even as it felt like everything was changing Sokka was always there for him. Then, going off to college. Feeling like everything was changing all over again, but Sokka was still the constant. Sokka was his true north. Getting halfway through college and realizing that something to do with Sokka had changed, Zuko’s feelings for him. The miraculous moment when Sokka had seemingly read his mind and told him that his feelings had shifted as well. 

It speaks to when Sokka and Zuko had gone home to visit their families. When Sokka took Zuko up onto that roof and proposed to him. When Zuko said yes and reached for the ring so enthusiastically that he almost fell off the roof. And then their wedding. When Sokka looked him in the eyes, knowing everything about him, and promised to be there for him and love him for the rest of their lives. When Zuko did the same for him back and wished he had the words to describe just how much he loved him.

Finally, it speaks to their future. The kids they hope to have someday, the family they hope to build. All the beautiful moments they know are to come, and the challenging ones as well. Because this will always be worth the fight.

Sokka has had his back since Day 1, and Zuko couldn’t be more grateful that he was getting to spend the rest of his life with him by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> And I scream for whatever it’s worth, I really appreciate getting comments and kudos ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard? (lol, let’s see how long I can keep coming up with ways to incorporate song lyrics into my shameless begging for comments and kudos shall we? I’m already struggling)
> 
> Normally I don’t write song fics like this, but hopefully it turned out okay! Let me know!
> 
> I fudged the age Zuko got his scar for storyline purposes. I’m perfectly aware he canonically got it at 13 years old. But this is my fic, so let me have this. Also, will there ever come a day when I don’t make myself a little sad with the fics I write? Probably not but a girl can dream.
> 
> Also also, I do have another chapter for Land of Shadows written and that should be up in a couple of days. My other fics are not being neglected, I promise!  
> ~Follow me on Tumblr if you wanna! @miyuki-scourgeofthefirenation  
> I take fic requests, though I make no promises about timeliness in fulfilling them. Hit me up on Tumblr and we can talk about it. No NSFW. Don’t ask, it’s not gonna happen.  
> I upload for ATLA on Sundays!


End file.
